IEEE-1588TM

Telecommunications
Applications

Silvana Rodrigues Antti Pietilainen

Phone: +1 613 2707258 Phone: +358(0)718036660
silvana.rodrigues@zarlink.com antti.pietilainen@nokia.com
http://timing.zarlink.com/ http://www.nokia.com
AGENDA

ƒ Telecommunication Synchronization Background

– Telecom Synchronization
– North America and International Telecommunication Union (ITU-
T) Timing Distribution Hierarchy
– Synchronous and Converged network model
ƒ Telecom Applications Examples using 1588
ƒ IEEE-1588TM Standard work to address Telecom Applications
– IEEE-1588 Issues for Telecom
– IEEE-1588 Enhancements to support Telecom
– IEEE-1588 Standard work to support Telecom
ƒ Summary
IEEE-1588TM is trademark of its respective owner

[Page 1]
 Telecommunication
Synchronization Background
Telecom Synchronization

ƒ Clock quality levels (stratum for North America and Types

and Options for the International Telecommunication Union -
ITU) are defined by the industry standards organizations to
maintain clock quality in the network
ƒ Time sensitive services need synchronization
ƒ Synchronization is important to avoid overflow or underflow
of slip buffers, bit errors and other adverse effects
– ITU-T Recommendation G.822 provides criteria for controlled slip
rate

[Page 3]
North America Timing Distribution
Hierarchy
Stratum 1
Primary Reference Source
Stratum 1: Network Gateway

Stratum 2 Stratum 2
Stratum 2: Central Offices

Stratum 3 Stratum 3 Stratum 3

Stratum 3 Stratum 3
Stratum 3: Local Offices

Stratum 4 Stratum 4
Stratum 4: Customer
Premises

[Page 4]
ITU-T SDH Timing Distribution
Hierarchy ITU-T Recommendation G.803
defines the synchronization
reference chain
PRC

G.812 G.812
Type I Type I

G.813 G.813 G.813

Option 1 Option 1 Option 1
Number of Number of
G.812 type I G.813 option1
clocks ≤ 10 clocks ≤ 20
G.813 G.813 G.813
Option 1 Option 1 Option 1

G.812 G.812 G.812

Type I Type I Type I

Total number of
G.813 G.813 G.813
G.813 clocks in a
Option 1 Option 1 Option 1
synchronization trail
should not exceed 60.

[Page 5]
Clock Level
North ITU-T Free-run Holdover Pull-in/ Wander Phase Transient
America Clock Level Accuracy Stability Hold-in Filtering (Re-arrangement)
Stratum Level range

1 (PRS) PRC (G.811) +/- 1x10-11 N/A N/A N/A N/A

2 Type II (G.812) +/- 0.016 ppm +/- 1x10-10 /day 0.016 ppm 0.001Hz MTIE < 150ns

Not Defined Type I (G.812) N/D +/- 2.7x10-9 0.01 ppm 0.003Hz MTIE < 1μs
/day

3E Type III +/- 4.6 ppm +/- 1.2x10-8 4.6 ppm 0.001Hz MTIE < 150ns
/day Phase slope 885ns/s
(G.812)
3 Type IV +/- 4.6 ppm +/- 3.9x10-7 4.6 ppm 3Hz MTIE < 1μs
/day 0.1Hz Phase slope 61us/s
(G.812)
(SONET) Objective: MTIE < 150n
Phase slope 885ns/s

Not Defined Option I +/- 4.6 ppm +/- 2x10-6 4.6 ppm 1 – 10Hz MTIE < 1μs
/day
(G.813)
SMC Option 2 +/- 20 ppm +/- 4.6x10-6 20 ppm 0.1Hz MTIE < 1μs
/day Objective mask 150ns
(G.813)
Phase slope 885ns/s
4 4 +/- 32 ppm N/A 32 ppm No No Requirement

[Page 6]
Standard Requirements

ƒ ITU-T recommendations, G.823 for E circuits and G.824 for T circuits set
limits on the magnitude of jitter and wander at network interfaces. The
wander may not exceed given values anywhere in the network. Thus, a circuit
emulation link, for example, may consume only part of the wander budget
ƒ GSM, WCDMA, and CDMA2000 require 0.05 ppm at air interface
ƒ CDMA2000 requires time synchronization at ± 3 μs level (±10 μs worst case)
ƒ WCDMA TDD mode requires 2.5-μs time accuracy between neighboring base
stations (i.e. ±1.25 μs of UTC)
– These requirements are too difficult to achieve without good transparent clocks or
boundary clocks in each intermediate node
– Some cellular operators do have control over the transport network so they could
use IEEE1588 compliant switches for achieving time synchronization

[Page 7]
Synchronous Network Model

PRC ƒ Annex A of G.823 lists the most important elements to

consider when building a synchronization network
a. Specification of individual clocks that are part of the
SSU#1 synchronization chain. The clock noise specifications are
defined in ITU-T Recommendations G.811, G.812 and G.813 for
PRCs, SSUs and SECs, respectively
b. Composition of the complete synchronization chain
SSU#10 – Number of clocks of each type (PRC, SSU, SEC)
– The order they are cascaded
– G.803 defines a synchronization reference chain with 1
SEC#1 PRC followed by 10 SSUs and 20 SECs. There may be 40
more SECs between the SSU#1 and SSU#10.
c. Noise of each individual clock, diurnal wander and phase
transients need to be considered
SEC#19 d. Architecture of the data connection (i.e. 4 SDH islands on the
link containing 8 pointer processors inside each island)

SDH SDH SDH SDH

Island#1 Island#2 Island#3 Island#4
Equipment with
Slip-buffer SDH Island adds wander
termination to the output clock

[Page 8]
Converged Network Model

PRC ƒ ITU-T G.pactiming is studying timing and synchronization

aspects in Packet Networks
SSU#1 a. Specification of individual clocks that are part of the
synchronization chain needs to be considered
– Algorithms used to recover clocks in packet networks
filter wander, but also generate wander
SSU#10 b. Noise introduced by Ethernet switches and Routers will add
wander to the output clock
c. Night and day low frequency effects due to load of the packet
SEC#1 network
d. Architecture of the data connection must be considered (i.e. mix
of SDH and CES islands)

SEC#19
Wander budget for CES

SDH SDH SDH IWF CES IWF

Island#1 Island#2 Island#3 Island
Equipment with
Slip-buffer CES Island
termination Packet Switch Network

[Page 9]
Telecom Applications
Examples using 1588
Requirement scenarios
a) Connecting SDH/SONET/PDH
nodes and networks (circuit Clock ISPs
emulation). Clock Enterprises
The connections between Government
SDH/SONET
SDH/SONET/PDH nodes may be Packet
PDH
leased from another carrier (e.g. RNC/BSC
cellular operators usually do not own Ethernet
Ethernet
the transport network). Typical
requirements are to meet ITU-T
G.823 and G.824.
a) b) c)
b) Connecting nodes, which require Packet Network
synchronization for other reasons,
e.g. cellular base stations. Ethernet
Ethernet Ethernet
Typical requirements are 0.05ppm of CES IWF Packet ISPs
Legacy base
frequency accuracy. B base DSLAMs
stations
c) Connecting offices and nodes of SDH/SONET stations B Enterprises
B
Internet service providers (ISPs), PDH PDH Government
enterprises, government. The bulk Ethernet
B
of all traffic.
B

[Page 11]
 IEEE-1588 used in CES Application

1588
Slave Base
PRS Clock Station

CES T1/E1
1588 IWF
Grand Wireline Service Provider
Master
Ethernet

Time Packet
Server Network
Ethernet
Ethernet
Emulated circuit
T1/E1 Base
CES Station
CES
IWF
IWF 1588
Slave
Clock
N x T1/E1 1588 T1/E1 Base
Slave Station
RNC Clock

[Page 12]
IEEE-1588* used in Wireless Networks
Primary Secondary
PRS Time Server Time Server PRS

1588 1588
Grand Grand RNC
Master Master

Packet Based
RAN

Base Base Base Base

Station Station Station Station

1588 1588 1588 1588

Slave Slave Slave Slave
Clock Clock Clock Clock

* With proper changes to the current standard

[Page 13]
1588 Standard Work to Support
Telecom
IEEE-1588 Issues for Telecom

ƒ IEEE-1588 only allows the values of sync interval to be 1, 2, 8,

16, and 64 seconds
– It is difficult to maintain performance in a loaded network with
sync packet rate of 1pps and an inexpensive oscillator
ƒ IEEE-1588 relies on a symmetric network
ƒ IEEE-1588 does not have provision for redundancy support
– In telecom applications clocks must be always available
ƒ IEEE-1588 relies on boundary clocks topology
– Boundary clocks are not available in legacy telecom networks
ƒ IEEE-1588 only supports multicast
ƒ IEEE-1588 Message Format
– Long PTP messages consuming too much bandwidth

[Page 15]
IEEE-1588 Enhancements to Support
Telecom

ƒ Enhancements for increased resolution and accuracy

– Allow shorter sync_intervals
ƒ Extensions to the standard to enable correction for
asymmetry
ƒ Extensions to the standard to enable implementation of
redundant systems – Fault Tolerant Systems
– Deal with master clock failure and network failure
ƒ Prevention of errors accumulation in cascaded topologies
– Deal with boundary clock issues for telecom applications
ƒ Use of Unicast in addition to Multicast
ƒ Short Frame, reduced message format
ƒ Support for QoS

[Page 16]
IEEE-1588 Standard Work to Support
Telecom
ƒ Short Frame Format
– There is a consensus to have four short frame messages
Short Sync Message
Short Follow-up Message
Short Delay_Req Message
Short Delay_Resp Message
– The short frame protocol allows shorter sync_intervals
– The short frame protocol supports a mixed of short and long messages
– The current long frame format is still used for the Best Master Clock
algorithm and also to allow slaves to find the address and status of
available masters
– The existing Delay Request and Delay Response messages no longer
need to be transmitted
– The short messages give the same timing information as the long
messages of the existing standard and use the same timestamp format
– The short frame protocol allows the slave to vary the rate at which it
receives time information according to its needs

[Page 17]
IEEE-1588 Standard Work to Support
Telecom cont’d
ƒ Fault Tolerant
– There are 3 proposals
Two slave centric proposals and one master centric proposal
– Fault Tolerant Goals
The fault of any single network element can not cause slaves to
experience a sudden phase change.
A faulty grand master should be detected and replaced rapidly by
another grand master.
Switching from one grand master to another should not result in a
significant phase step at the slaves
– Fault Tolerant subcommittee is working on a single proposal that
aligns all the 3 proposals

[Page 18]
Summary

ƒ The interest on IEEE1588 in the Telecom Industry is growing

ƒ Several applications within Telecom can benefit from a
Precision Clock Synchronization Protocol like IEEE1588
ƒ The work in IEEE1588 to support Telecom is progressing
– Short Frame Format is stable
– Fault Tolerant work is on going
– Still several issues that need work
Issues must be resolved in a timely matter
It should be avoided (as much as possible) to add complex
functionality to the standard

[Page 19]
Acronyms

ƒ PRC Primary Reference Clock

ƒ PRS Primary Reference Source
ƒ SDH Synchronous Digital Hierarchy
ƒ SEC SDH Equipment Clock
ƒ SSU Synchronization Supply Unit
ƒ PDH Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy
ƒ GSM Global System for Communications
ƒ CDMA Code Division Multiple Access
ƒ WCDMA Wide-band CDMA
ƒ TDD Time Division Duplex
ƒ RNC Radio Network Controller (WCDMA)
ƒ BSC Base Station Controller (GSM)
ƒ DSLAM Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer

[Page 20]
Thank you!